I know from experience that a laminated stock on a M1 Garand will survive an out of battery event that would, and did, split a standard wood stock. All it took was a new receiver, new bedding, and it was ready to go.
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While I have a few McMillian stocks on target rifles, primarily because I like the Anschutz stock for a prone rifle
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Occasionally you will come across factory rifles with nice natural wood, but this is getting rarer, and more expensive, as the old growth woods are almost gone everywhere.
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for a cheap, beater factory rifle, why not plain beech.
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As fellow shooter Quinn Moore used to say "are you going to shoot your rifle or make love to it?"
My target rifles get lots of scratches and dents. I don't know how the guys with musuem grade wood keep from getting scratches on theirs, but I do see match rifles with stocks that are just amazing.
this was Joe Farmer's rifle stock
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this is Joe
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Joe told me he purchased the stock blank for $30.00 at Camp Perry in the mid 1960's and had been offered $1000 for it. Well, Joe kept it, I think he did all the wood work, and he could do all his metal work. Joe was 86 (if I remember right) when these pictures were taken, and he was the US Senior Small Bore National Champion. Another amazing fact about Joe was that he was right handed, but had macular issues in the right eye. He said he had a hole in his vision. So he shot, left handed!
when I buy stocks, I tend to buy laminated, the price is right, they drill easy for bedding pillars.
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and I leave certain sections rough: on this rifle, the pistol grip and the fore end I did not sand smooth. I want a grippy surface, which is easy to leave on a unfinished laminated stock
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Something else, I am going for 14" pulls. After shooting adjustable stocks for decades I started measuring trigger pull. I am around 14" to 14.25". I measured a number of old stocks. The WW1 M1903 had a 12.5 inch trigger pull length, and hurt like heck to shoot.
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In a world where the average recruit is 5' 7", 12.5 inches must have been OK.
Military rifles are interesting. The Mauser M98's have a 13.5 inch trigger pull, except for the Swedish M1896, which is 14 inch. I have a Swedish sword from that era, and I think the Swedes were big for the time.
And today, people have gotten bigger and yet when I measure commercial trigger pull lengths, the stocks are still around 13.5 inch trigger pulls. Shooters should re evaluate their trigger pull length, and if you are over six feet, the 13.5 in trigger pull will put your nose too close to the scope and bolt. You do not need to stock crawl with a scope, like you do with irons.
Back then, you had to get your eye close to the rear aperature. You don't need that, you can move the scope back, with proper mounts.
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